Posts Tagged ‘Doula Care Omaha Nebraska’

Your Partner has made it out of the first trimester, and has hopefully ended morning sickness. However that does not mean that everything is done. This trimester you get to look forward to: her still being tired, constipated, heartburn, gas, growing breasts, PMS like symptoms, pregnancy brain, a growing belly, feeling the baby move (or hearing her talk about how it feels if you cannot feel it yet), leg cramps, and a sore back.

Sounds like fun? Yeah not so much, so what can a dad do about all this? Dads can play a key role in the emotional well being of the mothers. Take her out to dinner; buy her flowers or other things that she enjoys. You can also draw a warm bath to help her relax; make her tea to sooth her tummy. Know what foods she really enjoys and make sure to keep a few goodies stocked in the cupboard for her growing appetite. Ignore the gas, and find extra ways to offer her fiber… rub on her if she enjoys massage and spend time in the heat of her emotions with her. If she is sad be sad with her, if she is happy be happy with her. Also help her keep organized, create a system for writing down important dates and such. It may also be helpful to get her a day planner or PDA to help keep track of everything else in her busy life.

Consider going with her to the prenatal appointments and discuss your birth plan with the Medical professionals of your choice. Start making a real effort to find a Doula if you have not already, time is running out and a Doula needs some time to get to know you and your family as well. I can be reached for Doula Services in Council Bluffs Iowa and Omaha Nebraska via E-mail, Omaha also has the Omaha Doula Association and Doula Source for the greater Nebraska area, you can also try online searches if you are located in other states or email me and I will see what kind of a list I can compile for you.

If you saw us, feel free to check out the Omaha Doula Associations site, leave a note here or on Facebook, I would love to see these wonderful ladies and the groups they work with get the recognition they deserve.

This article brought tears to my eyes as I read it. The mother shares how her medical staff declared her child dead, gave her a chance to say goodbye, and as she held and cuddled the child skin to skin on her chest he started to breath. The medical staff brushed if off, but after more than two hours he was holding her finger and taking bits of breast milk offered off of her finger tip!

The child is now five months old and thriving! I hope more hospitals come around to the benefits of skin to skin contact, given the dramatic outcome it can have with sick and preterm babes.

The best way to get skin to skin contact is to have it out lined in your birth plan. Your doula can help you create a birth plan, or you can write one yourself outlining the key points you want to happen and things you do not wish to happen durring labor and right after birth. To find a Doula in the Omaha Nebraska and Council Bluffs Iowa area Contact me, or my friends at the Omaha Doula Association.

I have had this conversation with more than one family that starts out; “My baby is fussy, my Doctor says its gas or she is colicky, and I should supplement with formula” or “I am worried my baby is not getting enough to eat, should I go and buy some formula… just to be sure?” and my ever favorite “my child is sensitive to X in my diet I need to stop nursing and offer formula right?”

Now these are all valid concerns and valid reasons, but I want to first discuss things you can try before offering formula to your child. We all know that breast is best, and that there is no shame in giving a baby a bottle but if you have already worked so hard to establish a full time nursing relationship, lets try everything else first. The part that sucks, is most of this means tweaking your diet, a not always fun process.

• Gas, spit up, and colic ~ Dairy can be the culprit here. Now that means if your baby has any alternative means of feeding (formula or solids) that you cut out dairy directly to the child, but it also means cutting out dairy for you as well if you nurse. The part that really sucks is Soy is able to cause the same problems for small infants as well. So nixing both until you can get the problem under control than slowly trying to start eating one or the other again may be best. Depending on your kiddo this may be a few weeks down the road or a many months down the road.

• Small or still hungry sounding baby~ My first suggestion is to nurse more often, offer the boob when you see any sign of hunger, if your milk supply is truly low, than do a sit in and hang out in bed all day with the baby and any time the baby has an interest offer the boob. If you’re a pumping mom it gets a little more difficult, you may want to try and bring things that cue your body into the baby with you, perhaps a blanket, a photo, or a toy of the child’s something that makes you feel and focus on your child more so that your body can take over and do its natural thing. Also make sure you are eating healthy, drinking lots of water, and still taking a dietary supplement such as your prenatal vitamins.

• My baby is sensitive or allergic to something in my diet. Find out what it is or what things the kiddo reacts to and cut it out of your diet. It sucks, it is hard but it can be done. If your child is way on the extreme side of the scale it may even be a cost factor that means you need to stick it out and eat the only 5 foods your child does not react to, some of the special formula is way more expensive than it really should be.

My over all suggestion is that if you are already nursing, keep doing it, push through and find what you need to change in your diet to keep working at it. I know that not all moms can and so now we will touch on what to look for in a formula. Find one that is not soy or milk based, rice based can be easier to digest and you skip out on the soy and milk reactions. Buy several brands and keep trying until you find one that eliminates all your symptoms. Talk to your Medical Professional and see if something more drastic needs done… you can get some formulas by prescription to help with cost and insurance coverage. Only you know what you need to do to make life workable at home for you and your baby so keep at it and seek help, you never have to be a mom by yourself!

If you are in Omaha Nebraska or Council Bluffs Iowa (and nearby areas) contact me and I will help you any way I can, you can also contact Milkworks if you are around Lincoln Nebraska, and as always ask your Doula if she knows anything helpful, or knows of someone who can help.

The Doula was an awesome event hosted tonight put on by Nebraska Friends of Midwives, featuring Doulas from The Omaha Doula Association. For me it was a great chance to see the birth community out here in a more positive light. Seeing other Doulas, expecting Moms and even a UNMC Midwife was really just food for my soul. It had been far to long since I had been in a room surrounded by positive energy about what birth can mean and what it brings and the emotional power it has over each of us.

I was able to hear what it is like being a Doula in the Midwest is like, make friends and connections as well as start a path to joining the Omaha Doula Association!

If you made it to this wonderful event you received lots of fliers and hand outs from the various people and presenters. Learned what a Doula is, what she does and does not do, how to find a doula, and what to expect as far as what to pay, and how it can be benefit to have a doula even if you’re planning a more medically minded birth. I really enjoyed being able to ask my own questions and mingle with the group after the official forum was over. All in all it was truly a wonderful event, Kudos to all who presented! I would keep an eye out on the Omaha Doula Association if you are a Doula or expecting mom in Council Bluffs, Iowa or Omaha Nebraska.

Why hire a Doula
A Doula helps the Mother stay centered and focused, gives the mother another support person on her team, assists the father in how to stay active and involved in the labor and delivery. A doula works with the mother and the labor team in a hospital, she is in sync with your midwives, and an extra set of hands for you and your partner. The emotional support offered is critical when the mother is at the peak of emotions. A Doula can help translate some of the medical jargon, and help remind the medical team of your wishes in the more busy moments. Doula's can also help remind you of your wishes to avoid interventions, and elective medical procedures.

The best way to find a Doula, is to ask around, ask your friends and your family, and your Childbirth class teachers, hopefully they know of one. If they do not, search the internet, Dona has some great ways to find doulas, and you can sometimes find student Doula’s on craigslist (be careful!). The key is to meet as many as you need until you find the magic one that clicks with you.

See my main page for what I personally offer if you live in Council Bluffs Iowa, or Omaha Nebraska, and the Surrounding areas. .

As a Doula my inclination is toward a natural labor, I do however know that not everyone wants a natural labor. With that said, today I wanted to share some information about natural labor. After watching The Business of Being Born, and Born in the USA, it really made me stop and think about why we make the choices we make. As I said in previous posts I grew up thinking that birth happens in hospitals, but I have grown to embrace a more natural approach. Here’s why, medication and how it affecs the infant, is my number one concern, how medications affect infants has yet to be completely known. Harder drugs such as Demerol we know cross the placenta, but the long term side effects are unknown. An epidural has been shown to decrease alertness in infants immediately postpartum, but where does it end? And how sure are we that this medication (while sometimes really needed such as in the event of an emergency c-section) should be used for everyday labor?

My other concern is how medical interventions reflect on the mothers’ emotional well being. Interventions often stack upon each other and each intervention takes away from what a woman has to do in labor. Starting from the very beginning, Using a medication to start labor, the message that it can send is that a woman’s body is unable to start the labor process, her body does not know when it should start labor. Once Labor has been started, if it is not progressing, stripping the membranes is often the next step; this tells a woman again that her body is not doing what it’s supposed to, it’s not moving fast enough. After the water is broken, and medication has been given the labor pains may be to great for the woman to cope with. So the next logical step is to offer an epidural, once the epidural is in place a woman must labor on her back thus adding gravity to the forces working against her, and the medications can stall Labor, or react poorly with the baby, resulting in an emergency C-section. Each of these steps can be needed, and used properly; there are real medical emergencies that arise that make interventions necessary. However most labor can and should proceed as natural as possible to allow for the safest and lest complicated recovery for the mother and child.

So what can be done to avoid this spiral? Utilize your own method of pain relieve here are tips you can try. Hire a good doula (contact me) or find one in your area. Create a birth plan, and have a strong support team, consider using a midwife, they work in hospitals and birthing centers, and home births. Trust your body and your partner. Relax breath and enjoy the birth experience for what it is, the welcoming of your new child into the world.

If you are in my area, please feel free to contact me if you are in search of a doula, I work in Omaha Nebraska, Council Bluffs, Iowa and the surrounding areas.